ABSTRACT
The Muslim migrants who made Britain their home over the end of the twentieth century often looked at Britain through a postcolonial lens. Outside London, Muslims with roots in South Asia, particularly the million or so from Pakistan, become the ethnic lens through which Islam is seen. Bradford assumed national and international notoriety in 1989 when, in front of the town hall, local Muslims burned Salman Rushdie's novel The Satanic verses. To enhance the religious and cultural literacy of local people, a Roman Catholic mission society, the Columban Fathers, supported by the Bradford Council of Mosques, funded a joint trip of Christians and Muslims from Bradford to visit Pakistan in 1989. A social psychologist who researched Muslim youth cultures in Bradford developed a threefold typology of identities: the rude boy, extremists and coconuts. Rude boys mix between three cultures: African-American hip hop, Northern Pakistani and Northern Industrial.
